1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the medical products and personal care products and especially to natural and synthetic polymers used to manufacture contact lenses, polymeric medical sutures, surgical gloves, and other similar medical items.
2. Description of Related Art
The importance of sterile techniques to modem medicine can hardly be overestimated. Almost every medical student is aware of infections introduced during surgery or during post surgical care and all users of contact lenses are familiar with the importance of clean contact lenses to the health of their eyes. A continuing problem with the use of polymeric materials has been the propensity for microorganisms to adhere to surfaces of these initially sterile polymeric materials which subsequently can lead to irritation and/or infection.
The principal uses of sterile grade polymers puts them in contact with various mucosal and other surfaces of the human and mammalian body. These surfaces are key in the body's early line of defense. When mucosal surfaces are abraded, penetrated incorrectly or exposed to conditions conducive to microbial growth, infection can occur more easily. In order to inhibit infection, the polymeric materials coming in contact with mucosal surfaces could be treated with some type of microbicide to inhibit microbial adhesion and subsequent infection. Unfortunately, it has proven difficult to produce an effective microbicide that does not readily wash out of the material, thereby greatly reducing its effectiveness and possibly causing irritation or damage to body tissues.
In most cases these products consisting of polymers are sterilized prior to packaging by gaseous treatment or irradiation, once in contact with air or mucosal surfaces they can act as an adherent surface for microbes. Various microbicides have been investigated but in most cases they are released from the polymer under aqueous conditions and they are more or less toxic. What is needed is a microbicide which remains adsorbed to the polymeric material under various physiological conditions where it can inhibit microbial growth without having negative effect on living tissue.